Thread: Which side of the road to drive on?

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Just showing it can be done. But Sweden in 1961 had a small fraction of Australia's present population, much lower proportion of cars to the population, a tiny fraction of Australia's length of roads, far less in the way of structures such as turning lanes and freeway intersections that need major changes for changing sides - and most importantly, unlike Australia, had good reasons for changing.

John

Even if Australia decided to change, we in Qld. wouldn't. It would fade the curtains. Bob

Originally Posted by bob10

Even if Australia decided to change, we in Qld. wouldn't. It would fade the curtains. Bob

Only if you made them swap sides in summer.

Actually in western Qld you drive in the centre of the road where the pavement is laid, so changing sides is unnecessary!

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Only if you made them swap sides in summer.

Actually in western Qld you drive in the centre of the road where the pavement is laid, so changing sides is unnecessary!

Up to the twenties nearly all motor vehicles were right hand drive, and rightly so, then some dickhead decided to switch sides.
The fact is that most humans are right handed and their right eye is their master eye.
Driving a LHD car on the right side of the road, with the centre line on your left causes your right (focusing) eye to look across your left eye's path of vision which then causes your left eye to focus to the right eye.
Also being right handed allows better more precise handling of the steering wheel.
So can anyone enlighten me on who and why the Yanks went from RHD to LHD, Regards Frank.

In some of the more remote parts of SA and NT on unsealed roads, I found it better to drive on the right hand side of the road in places.

Sometimes the corrugations were not as bad over on that side. or maybe they were a slightly different shape so the ride seemed smoother.

Originally Posted by Tank

...
The fact is that most humans are right handed and their right eye is their master eye.
...

Sorry Frank but you are wrong:

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye dominance or eyedness,[1] is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other.[2] It is somewhat analogous to the laterality of right- or left-handedness; however, the side of the dominant eye and the dominant hand do not always match.[3] This is because both hemispheres control both eyes, but each one takes charge of a different half of the field of vision, and therefore a different half of both retinas (See Optic Tract for more details). There is thus no direct analogy between "handedness" and "eyedness" as lateral phenomena.

Even if what you stated was true, would that mean that left handed people get to drive on the right to avoid discrimination?

This page has a good history of why we have the current situation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_...raffic#History

Great , when I feel like pulling the pin on things I will pm my arrival to let you have time to line me up.

Keeping to the right or left when passing oncoming traffic was not formalised until the eighteenth century (Romans almost certainly had rules about it, but these did not persist after the collapse of the Roman empire).

However, in continental Europe, coaches generally kept right, as horses were controlled by postillion riders on the left hand horses (so their right, whip, hand was over the other horses.

English coaches were usually controlled from a seat on the front of the coach, usually on the right so that the right hand was on the brake, so coaches generally kept to the left. In both cases it was so that the drivers were closest to each other.

The first formalisation of the rules on any national scale was by Napoleon, to smooth the movement of military traffic. And since he at some stage ruled virtually all of continental Europe, the rules were applied throughout Europe, and Napoleon specified keep right, simply on the basis of what was already most common. Britain followed suit, but somewhat later (and after the American colonies became independent). The USA probably adopted keep right in imitation of the French, with whom they had close relations in the early years, and possibly just to be different to Britain.

The rules had little impact on most people until motor traffic became more common early in the twentieth century - at a top speed of perhaps 10kph, dodging the wrong way would have rarely had serious consequences. By this time most of the world had come under the influence of colonial powers, with France, Holland, Germany, Belgium etc and their colonies driving on the right, and Britain and most of their empire driving on the left (Canada probably copied their near neighbour, but the French influence may have been significant). Japan looked to Britain for much of their inspiration in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, probably explaining why they drive on the left, similarly for Thailand, although their proximity to British colonies in Burma and Malaya may also be an influence.

Also worth noting that up until about 1920 it was not accepted as a solid rule that the driver was on the right for keep left and vice versa. In fact, driver on the kerb side of the vehicle was sometimes considered an advantage in some luxury cars, as it enabled the chauffeur to move more quickly to open the kerb side door after stopping. (One example was most Pierce Arrow cars in the USA were RHD until about then)

John

John

International shipping rules are right hand side which means to me it would make sense to be the same as that